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Decks/Zombie Control
Zombie Control This is a revised version of the original deck. The deck was quite weak until the expansion, and was a 'novelty' deck but now it is much, much stronger. The deck will rank you 10-20 with ease. It has a lot of synergy and there are many clever combinations to learn and use. Currently it's mildly oversized, but you can either trim it or not and it will still work. I'm sure that the deck can be improved upon also. Most cards are here to serve multiple purposes. Most of the cards are from , and . It's probably one of the better Zombie decks out there - and I've defeated many with it. Maybe I've defeated you too. The deck depends heavily on controlling the opponent while having many low cost zombies, but at the same time zombies which serve purposes other than just cannon-fodder. It's not just another Liliana, the Last Hope zerg rush. =Strategy= * There are several strategies available, like any half-decent deck. So, you need to look at the situation and adapt to what is available. * Let the graveyard fill up with zombies. The graveyard is normally an extension of your hand with this deck. * Get your Planeswalker emblems out. * Control your opponent's battlefield. * Get comfortable with all the interactions before you start editing the deck too much. =How the cards work for you= *Cemetery Recruitment In general, it's going to be used with a little care when playing Diregraf Colossus in order to get the boost. Play the Diregraf first, of course. It serves two main purposes - for rescuing the non-zombies Liliana, Heretical Healer, Gisa and Geralf and Willbreaker out of the graveyard (each of these cards works as a game-winner, so they're worth it). Secondly just to control the opponent with Fleshbag Marauder, which is this card's main use. *Fleshbag Marauder This is one of the central control cards and an essential card. You always choose it to sacrifice, and then just resurrect it for another punch. Once Liliana, Heretical Healer's emblem is out, then it will keep on coming out again and again and again like a demonic jack-in-the-box, wiping your opponent's battlefield in an awesome zom-feast. *Liliana, Heretical Healer One epic card. She's a creature until she's hatched, which is great for resurrection. Be very careful not to hatch her while Liliana, the Last Hope is on the battlefield. Discard her if that's the case, and resurrect her later. However, her emblem is so powerful with this deck that if you have survived enough to play it, it's going to be very hard to lose. With both Lilianas don't hesitate to sacrifice them for the emblem. *Liliana, the Last Hope Protect this card and sacrifice it ASAP for the emblem. She's worth it. The deck can easily win without her even showing an appearence, however she makes the journey much easier. Once her emblem is out, you quickly will have a battlefield with more than a hundred of hungry zombies at your fingertips. *Gisa and Geralf The essential 'zombie' non-zombie. This card turns your graveyard into your hand. As soon as they are up, cards such as Prized Amalgam come back with each resurrection. Not only that, but if you have your Bontu's Monument and/or Wayward Servant out (especially alongside Diregraf Colossus) your health keeps rising, and your opponent just dies. G&G are perfect synergy for a Zombie deck like this. *Willbreaker What isn't there to love about this Will? Okay, so he's not a zombie - but touch any opponent creature with any sort of stick and hey, they work for you. This is what I use Rogue's Passage, Walking Ballista and the Planeswalker cards for. If my Voracious Null or Bontu the Glorified (with support cards like Plague Belcher) are out then I sacrifice them as Willbreaker often takes a lot of flak from a strong opponent. *Dread Wanderer is a fantastic card. It's resurrect to the battlefield drags Prized Amalgam with it, and so they (and it) can be sacrificed and resurrected very easily. Watch out for the taps though.. leading on to * Prized Amalgam I love these. Everytime you pull Dread Wanderer back out of the graveyard; or use Gisa and Geralf (or Liliana, Heretical Healer) to recruit from the graveyard (and even when using Supernatural Stamina) these come back out for another go. They don't activate from Cemetery Recruitment which puts cards into your hand of course, but hey. Pretty sweet. * Wayward Servant Cheap and well worth the requirement. There is so much Zombie movement going on in this deck that the chunks made in opponent's health by our servant often leads to a slow and painful death. The buff triggers on tokens also, so one of these in the battlefield will kill off the opponent once Liliana, the Last Hope's emblem is out. It's why we have a Crumbling Vestige and also Tezzeret the Schemer's artifacts help here *Diregraf Colossus These just benefit again and again. You can get a really powerful card out if you already have a good graveyard, and then for every subsequent zombie coming onto the battlefield, this card gives you another free! *Supernatural Stamina Cheap, with many uses. Once again, can be used alongside Willbreaker for a defection. Can be used for a returning sacrifice (which will trigger Prized Amalgam returns also). Being an instant can change the nature of a cheap attack for more damage. *Bontu the Glorified Maybe he isn't essential, but he is a God, right? an Indestructible God. So he's a great tank, and is often active. We can also use him (along with Voracious Null to mill our creatures (especially captured creatures) for triggers (eg. Gavony Unhallowed, and then use other powers to resurrect them if we wish. *Voracious Null is a good alternative for Bontu, and serves many of the same purposes. But in some ways he is bette for sacrificing to, because of the +2/+2 'permanent' bonus for each sacrifice. Again, Gavony Unhallowed benefits from the sacrifice, and Bontu is 'awakened'. *Plague Belcher is hideously nasty. Every time a zombie of yours dies, your opponents lose health. I've said it before. There's a lot of death with this zombie deck. If he is out, you can dump the negative counters onto Dread Wanderer and then resurrect him the same turn. Ouch. *Lord of the Accursed each gives +1/+1 of the entire zombie army. They are often overlooked by the opponent (who wants to squash the likes of Willbreaker) but they boost the army, and they are cheap. *Liliana's Mastery also gives +1/+1 bonus to the army and provides two zombies on top. Nice! *Bontu's Monument lowers cost, and synergises with Wayward Servant to erode the opponent's health. *Oath of Liliana Great cheap one-shot control with zombie add-ons for each Planeswalker later. *Graf Harvest A beautiful enchantment for this deck even though it's the menace that we want it for. The Zombie conversion of graveyard creatures is most often not what we want because the graveyard is so accessible. *Dark Salvation Can be used early in emergency to generate some aggro-absorbing zombies, but is most powerful when there are already several zombies out where it can be very effective at controlling expensive beasts. A great way of playing it when you have many zombies out is as at 1 cost, where it still does huge harm. Again, although quite 'expensive' it can also be used to trigger Willbreaker. I would have four of these if I could. *Grasp of Darkness Cheap kill, can also be used against bigger beasts when Willbreaker is out. *Gavony Unhallowed With Zombies there's always a lot of death, and a lot of graveyard traffic. Why not let dear Gavony stand by to pick up power each time a death takes place? Add Cartouche of Knowledge for excellent air defence. *Tezzeret the Schemer The artefacts are rainbow mana, so can be used for any shortfalls in mana requirements, or can be used to boost Walking Ballista or Dark Salvation. The second usage is to trigger Willbreaker or to kill off indestructibles, and other quick modification uses. I rarely generate the token for Tezzeret. Maybe Tezzeret isn't essential but it's nice to have him along for the ride, and he is yet another focus of attention for the opponent. (Possibly) Inessential Cards *Rancid Rats a common cheap zombie with deathtouch. Great for preventing early attacks. *Cartouche of Knowledge Nice to strengthen a support creature or use it with a strong card for flying defence, and you get a free card with it. All for two mana. *Crumbling Vestige is used to play a Wayward Servant when no have been played. *Jace, Vryn's Prodigy One of the few non-zombies, this has several great benefits. Because he's a creature until transformed, he can be resurrected, and once transformed you've got more control and access to sorceries/instants from the graveyard, and sometimes you are going to win with Jace's emblem, but I normally use it just for the touch for Willbreaker, or to re-use spells from the graveyard. *Tainted Remedy This is another one-hit pony, but it does what it says on the tin so well that many decks are rendered destroyed by it. Especially Vampire and Healer decks. This time it's going to hurt you as much as it hurts me. *Cryptbreaker A fantastic low cost zombie which provides a source of additional cards. Using it to spawn zombies is a less useful but occasional feature. *Walking Ballista It has a variable price and provides a great source of controlling the opponent. It synergises with Willbreaker well also. Early on it can be used to eliminate nasties. *Westvale Abbey This gives late game air defence of great facility. If you have this card you know how useful it is already. If not, well it is worth fishing for. There is often plenty to sacrifice also, so getting the transform isn't too hard. Game Over. *Rogue's Passage Once in a while this card is an end-game life-saver, as it removes blocks from even a weak attack. This has another great (though costly) synergising use once Willbreaker is on your battlefield - as it's buff can be applied to the opponent (and triggers Willbreaker effect). Category:Custom Deck